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Jill Fergus

I began cooking as a child and feeding family and friends has always been my passion. My kitchen is a busy one. I love to experiment and embrace the kitchen successes along with the accidents. I love to cook and collaborate with friends. I am seasonally driven (I love the farmer's market!), avoid processed foods and focus on whole and organic (mostly plant-based, but not exclusively) choices. In my home, my family has a variety of eating preferences from plant-based, gluten free, refined sugar free to full on omnivore. My goal is to create dishes to please all, either as is or with minor adjustments to the recipe. Where did "Feed the Swimmers" come from? When my kids began swimming competitively and growing into young adults, I realized, even more, how important nutrition is to performance, growth and overall health and emotional well being. Everyone (including the coach during travel meets) would ask "what are you feeding the swimmers?" This has become my mantra whenever I'm in my kitchen cooking for family and the friends I love.

May 3 Sweet Potato Nachos

Hands down, a family favorite (my kids especially love there before swim meets) and our first choice for Cinco de Mayo! So nutritious and so delicious! When I heard we would all be celebrating #margaritaweek (click here to find all of the delicious recipes by this amazing group of bloggers), I knew these needed to be shared. What better way to share the love for my favorite cocktail than with this wonderful accompaniment- sweet, spicy, crispy, chewy and creamy, these are brilliant with an ice cold margarita! There really isn’t a recipe involved, as I recommend customizing the toppings to suit your preference, but I’ll share a few basic steps and tips below. And, the sweet potatoes stand up to heat really well, so crank your salsa up a notch and try these spicy- with a margarita, the spicier the better! If you’re not vegetarian, topping these with strips of your favorite protein and these may easily be adapted to vegan (actually, I love these with tempeh) will only yield great results. These are also a great way to get loads of veggies in the kids- the eyes eat first. Go for big color impact!

How to:

Preheat oven to 375F with convection, 400-425 without.

Slice sweet potatoes 1/4” thick and coat with a very thin layer of olive oil. I like to massage them by hand.

Place slices on a rack over a parchment lined baking sheet. This will allow the heat to circulate creating a crispier potato (think air fryer). Season with kosher sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes, turning every 5. You will need to check them this frequently frequently as the edges burn quickly, especially if you’re using the convection feature.

Pile it all on!

Assemble potatoe slices on a shallow pile and top with your favorites. Here I used goat cheddar, black beans, shredded kale, cabbage, carrot, corn, jalapeño and spicy salsa (I like the salsa warm and serve some along side as well). If your first introducing this more healthful nacho version to your kids, slip some traditional tortilla chips to vary the texture.

Lower heat to 350F, and bake until Cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve immediately with avocado or guacamole.